The Coronavirus Act 2020 received Royal Assent on Wednesday 25 March 2020. The Act brings in emergency measures related to Covid-19 and the resulting pandemic. Employment-related changes include:

Modification of the statutory sick pay system. SSP will be payable from the first day of sickness or self-isolation and should be funded by HMRC. Although self-isolation is now covered by SSP rules, changes to social security legislation is required to allow payment for the first three days of absence;

'Emergency volunteering leave' is introduced. It enables emergency volunteers in health or social care to take unpaid time off work and receive compensation for loss of earnings and expenses from the state. Over 400,000 people signed up for this in the first 24 hours of its launch, so it will impact on many employers. Although employers are not required to pay volunteers, there seems to be no provision for blocking their right to leave work and volunteer, provided the employee provides the employer with three days' notice and a copy of their volunteering certificate, which they will have received in advance from an appropriate public authority. All employee benefits, bar remuneration must be safeguarded and employee volunteers are protected against detriment and dismissal. Unlike other provisions in the Act, which are time-barred under a 'sunset clause', these employee protections have no automatic expiry;

The SSP changes and emergency volunteering leave provisions both require secondary legislation to bring the proposed changes into law.

We hope to have more information on this and the job retention scheme of compensation for employers who have to lay-off employees at our webinar on 3rd April wil Mark McAllister of the LRA and Seamus McGranaghan of O'Reilly Stewart. Register now:https://www.legal-island.com/event/forthcoming-webinars-ni/

The Statutory Sick Pay (General) (Coronavirus Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 which amend regulation 2(1) to provide that a person who is isolating himself from others in accordance with advice on coronavirus disease effective on 12th March 2020 is deemed to be incapable of work, are published. These Regulations amend that date to 16th March 2020.http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2020/37/note/made

The Discretionary Support (Amendment) (COVID-19) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020.These Regulations amend the Discretionary Support Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 (S.R. 2016 No. 270) (“the 2016 Regulations”). Regulation 2 amends regulation 12 of the 2016 Regulations to provide for a grant for short-term living expenses to assist claimants affected by COVID-19 or who are advised to self-isolate because of it and to exempt such cases from the restriction of only one grant in twelve months.http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2020/44/note/made

We mentioned the Guidance from the Presidents of the Tribunals in GB last week and this week the President of the NI Employment tribunal has issued guidance. Having regard to the need to limit the scope of any risks to health during the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the need to maintain the administration of justice, the President of the Tribunals has issued the guidance which includes:

These Regulations bring into force, immediately after these Regulations are made, sections 18, 19 and 21 of, and schedule 13 to, the Coronavirus Act 2020 (c. 7) to ease the requirements around certification and registration of deaths and still-births in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and to modify the requirements for cremations in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/361/pdfs/uksi_20200361_en.pdf

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The information in this article is provided as part of Legal-Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article.